To the Right H0N0Rable John Lovelace, Esquire
LUCASTA (fair, but hapless maid!)Once flourisht underneath the shadeOf your illustrious Mother; now,An orphan grown, she bows to you!To you, her vertues' noble heir;Oh may she find protection there!Nor let her welcome be the less,'Cause a rough hand makes her address:One (to whom foes the Muses are)Born and bred up in rugged war:For, conscious how unfit I am,I only have pronounc'd her nameTo waken pity in your brest,And leave her tears to plead the rest.Sir,Your most obedientServant and kinsman
Words in this poem
- hapless a.
- Without hap or luck; luckless; unfortunate; unlucky; unhappy; as, hapless youth; hapless maid.
- waken v. i.
- To wake; to cease to sleep; to be awakened. [OE. waknen, AS. wæcnan; akin to Goth. gawaknan. See Wake, v. i.]
- kinsman n.
- A man of the same race or family; one related by blood.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
To the Right H0N0Rable John Lovelace, Esquire is in the public domain. This text is taken from Lucasta, Project Gutenberg ebook #703; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Richard Lovelace, To the Right H0N0Rable John Lovelace, Esquire, in Lucasta (1649), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #703, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/lovelace-lucasta/to-the-right-h0n0rable-john-lovelace-esquire.html, id L13027.
Form and metre
To the Right H0N0Rable John Lovelace, Esquire is 17 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 87%). 92% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.3 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 24% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic tetrameter.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 AA--BBCCD---EED-- maidA · shadeA · now · you · heirB · thereB · lessC · addressC · areD · war · am · name · brestE · restE · sirD · obedient · kinsman
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against iambic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| LUCASTA (fair, but hapless maid!) | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Once flourisht underneath the shade | 8 | ····˘/·· |
| Of your illustrious Mother; now, | 9 | ··˘/˘˘/˘· |
| An orphan grown, she bows to you! | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| To you, her vertues' noble heir; | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Oh may she find protection there! | 8 | ····˘/˘· |
| Nor let her welcome be the less, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| 'Cause a rough hand makes her address: | 8 | ······/· |
| One (to whom foes the Muses are) | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Born and bred up in rugged war: | 9 | ·····/˘˘· |
| For, conscious how unfit I am, | 8 | ·/˘·˘/·· |
| I only have pronounc'd her name | 8 | ·/˘·˘/·· |
| To waken pity in your brest, | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| And leave her tears to plead the rest. | 8 | ········ |
| Sir, | 1 | · |
| Your most obedient | 6 | ··˘/˘˘ |
| Servant and kinsman | 5 | /˘·/· |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.